Casagrande’s plan is a response to a state appeals court ruling last month. In 2009, David and Linda Kubert were injured in Morris County when their motorcycle was struck by a truck driven by Kyle Best, who was purportedly reading a text sent to him just before the crash. The Kuberts sued not only the driver, but Shannon Colonna, the person who sent the text message.

Saying that Colonna had no way to know that Best would respond to the text while driving, a three-judge panel threw out the claims against her. Any other ruling would have been preposterous. But two of the judges said that in some cases, a texter could be held responsible.

“We conclude that a person sending text messages has a duty not to text someone who is driving if the texter knows, or has special reason to know, the recipient will view the text while driving,” wrote Superior Court Appellate Division Judge Victor Ashrafi.

Call it a safe-text warning: Don’t send it, dope, if you know the recipient is driving.

Casagrande said of her planned bill, “This legislation puts the responsibility where it belongs — in the front seat with the driver — not with the sender who can be held culpable for something beyond their control.”

We need perspective, not a law that bans any possibility of shared culpability. Some of that perspective comes from Michael Kellenyi of Washington Township, whose 18-year-old daughter Nikki was killed in a 2012 crash.

The founder of Parents Against Distracted Driving calls it nearly impossible to pin accident liability on a remote text sender. Yet, far as laws are concerned, he’d rather see ones that make it easier for authorities to establish distracted driving as the cause of an accident.